Today In Pop Culture: Crosby Meets Bowie

By Jeffery X Martin

Pop quiz, hot shots.

Who was the biggest selling musical artist of the twentieth century? We’ll make this multiple choice, just to make it easier.

A) Elvis Presley
B) Madonna
C) Perry Como
D) Bachman-Turner Overdrive

If you guessed Bachman-Turner Overdrive, bless your heart.

No, the answer is actually not on the list, because I’m a jerk. The best-selling musical artist of the twentieth century was Bing Crosby! He sold over a billion albums, tapes, downloads, 45s, 78s, wax cylinders, whichever kind of musical reproduction media you can think of. Do the kids even know who Bing Crosby was? Would they know he’s the guy who sang “White Christmas?” Have they even heard of the movie, Going My Way, or know that he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in that film?

He was Will Smith. He was Justin Timberlake. He was Jennifer Lopez.

And on this date in 1977, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Old Christmas aired on television. It was the final one in a long series that had began on radio in 1936 and transitioned to TV in 1955. Crosby had recorded this special in September, then he passed away the following October. That show is historically important not only because it was the last one, but because it featured Bing singing “The Little Drummer Boy” with David Bowie.

Even by Seventies standards, that was a weird pairing. The pipe-smoking baritone King of Christmas performing with the outrageous, glam-rock Wild-Eyed Boy from Freecloud? Bizarre. It made about as much sense as Josh Groban taking the stage with GWAR.

It worked, though. We’re still talking about it today. When the song was remastered and released as a single in 1982, it hit the third spot on the UK Singles chart. It is often considered as the perfect bridge between the style of the crooners and the audacity of the rockers. Grandma and Grandpa were afforded an opportunity to understand why Little Johnny was wearing eyeliner and his sister’s cast-off dresses. It was a causeway across the Generation Gap.

And if you’ve never seen it, or heard it, here it is.